“Freedom is found through the portals of our nation’s libraries.” - David McCullough, Speech at the Library of Congress about his book on John Adams, aired on C-Span, June 10, 2001.

Americans go to school, public and academic libraries more than three times as frequently as they go to the movies.

There are more public libraries than Starbucks in the U.S.total of 17,566 including branches. 

Nearly 100% of public libraries provide WiFi and have no-fee access to computers. 

In 2013, there were 1.5 billion in-person visits to public libraries across the U.S., the equivalent of more than 4 million visits each day. That’s 2,854 per minute.

Credit: Quotable Facts About America's Libraries - ALA

Public, school and Academic Libraries are essential to the health of democracy.

Ask your librarian how to find any topic that interests you - they will find it for you and help you find even more.

Click on these images for bullet points in free PDF format:

in English

and Spanish.

For more info, click on this image:

More info at this link: 

A group of Bradford pupils visit the Hay Festival  for the first time "as part of an exchange programme with the Bradford Literature Festival" .

They gleefully give their review.

"I'm looking forward to (The Hay Festival) because I'm going to know what is outside of Bradford, going to a different place."

There is hope.

Chicago PL pushes boundary of "Library Commons".

Chicago Housing Authority & Chicago Public Library Partner Up, Bring Mixed-Income Housing and Libraries Together

The City of Chicago is "beginning of construction on three innovative co-located housing and library developments being built across the city. (Beginning with the) Taylor Street Apartments and Roosevelt Branch Library, with construction also getting underway at two co-located developments in the West Ridge and Irving Park communities. Mayor Emanuel announced that plans will continue for two additional CPL branches using creative interagency partnerships — one in the CHA’s Altgeld Gardens community and a new branch in the West Loop to serve its rapidly growing community.

“Libraries serve as community anchors, making knowledge and learning accessible for everyone,” said CPL Commissioner Brian Bannon. “The new co-located libraries will help to sustain strong neighborhoods, and provide a place for all community residents to gather, share and succeed.”

“This project bringing together housing with a neighborhood library will be paramount for our community,” said Alderman Jason Ervin, 28th Ward. “This investment shows our residents that no matter what your income is or what neighborhood you live in, if you call Chicago home you should have a range of housing options to choose from.”

"Over the past six years, Chicago Public Library has witnessed one of the largest capital investments in recent history. Through City investment and innovative partnerships, the Library has seen over $200 million of new capital projects and investments in the people and programs that activate our community anchors. By the end of 2018, we will have 11 new library buildings and 14 additional locations with major renovations and expansions. Embedded in these locations and other locations citywide is our innovative way to serve children and teens. CPL will have added new early learning play spaces at 28 locations and new teen spaces at 19 locations."

Source: Mayor Emanuel and City Officials Break Ground on Innovative Branch Library Projects

Librarians planning your new library or addition, take note.

You can do anything you want to do.

A story to inspire you.

Camila Silva reports in worldarchitecture.org about an exciting program "created by the architect Carina Guedes. Named Arquitetura na Periferia , the program teaches women (that they) can design their houses by themselves."

The idea was born from Carina's master's thesis in collaboration with her advisor and the research group MOM (Morar de Outras Maneiras).

This account is taken from this link at worldarchitecture.org

(a team working in) A social project in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, has taught low-income women how to renovate or extend their homes without the assistance of a professional.

In a country where the most economically vulnerable population sees self-construction as the only alternative, the results of this initiative do more than increasing (sic) the housing quality: the project changes how these women envision life by itself.

Through a process where the groups of women are (introduced and taught) the practices/techniques of project design and planning, (with) technical assistance for the improvement of housing, (the women) ... (are) able to conduct the construction (of their homes) with autonomy and without waste."

According to an interview given to Catraca Livre, the participant Ana Paula affirms that her vision of the world has changed. "Today I look at things and people in a different way. For example, I look at people knowing that any of us can do anything we want". (my emphasis) 

Here are further links to this encouraging story:

Projeto em BH ensina mulheres periféricas a reformar suas casas

Abrace o Brasil - Abrace o Brasil

and

Arquitetura na Periferia - Home | Facebook

No words can politely express how we feel about this story.

Perhaps the lawyers for Michigan's Gov. Rick Snyder and Gov. Snyder himself really are hoping that there will be no one who is even able to read this article:

http://bit.ly/2fG2nHd

ScrnDrbCred: fox2detroit
 

This time it's the Fort Washington branch of the NYPublicLibrary that has the attention of writer, Sarah Laskow at Atlas Obscura and Brent Bambury at CBC Radio.

These forgotten apartments where people lived with their families and in most cases, took care of the fabulous libraries, have come back into focus. ‎Librarians are beginning to imagine a new purpose for these neglected spaces. 

http://bit.ly/2fICzfX

‎&

http://bit.ly/2dEjasB

‎ScrnGrbCred: AltasObscura.com, CBC.ca/radio

In a Giant Step forward for all Men and Women this #WomensEqualityDay, @NASA has announced that “(they) are celebrating this opportunity to extend access to our extensive portfolio of scientific and technical publications,” NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman says in a press release. “Through open access and innovation we invite the global community to join us in exploring Earth, air, and space.”

Research funded by NASA from 2016 onward will be available on line to the public through PubMed Central at PubSpace NASA. The only exclusions will be for "patents, publications that contain material governed by personal privacy, export control, proprietary restrictions, or national security law or regulations."

May the #STEM support prosper!

ScreenGrabCred: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc

Save

We complain about our operating hours and our funding and how to stay relevant in the 'information age' and this little one

cred:yourstory.com/

"Muskaan Ahirwar (who) lives in the slums of Arera Hills in Bhopal", India can put us all to shame just by being a 9 year old who doesn't know she can't do the unbelievable.

After school each day when she gets home, she reads to her friends who flock to hear her and feed their hunger for knowledge and delight.

17 feet below ground, in a concrete bunker...the (NYPL)...is expanding.

Yes, the NYPL had to reevaluate and re-imagine expansion. The solution is clever, practical, secure and technically smart.

"The Bryant storage space consists of two floors, the first of which was put into use in the late 1980s, while the second floor, dug out but not finished back then, has lain fallow. Now, to accommodate the books long housed in the original 105-year-old stacks, a part of the library whose future is still under discussion, the second floor is being turned into a state-of-the-art storage hub."

Here's the link to the full article in the NY Times.

The Ottawa Public Library in partnership with the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) make a documentary: The Human Library.
Video in this link.

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/human-library-stories-trailer-1.3166914

screen shot WSJ

",,,tablet reading has declined recently to 41% in the first quarter this year from 44% in 2014."

and

"The number of people who read primarily on phones has risen to 14% in the first quarter of 2015 from 9% in 2012."

"The rise of phone reading is pushing publishers to rethink the way books are designed, marketed and sold with smaller screens in mind. It’s also prompting concern about whether deep, concentrated thinking is possible amid the ringing, buzzing and alerts that come with phones."

Read the whole article from the Wall Street Journal here.

Got your attention?

This summary article (Wiley.com) written by Lluis Anglada, Director of the Department of Libraries, Information and Documentation of the Consortium of University Services of Catalonia (CSUC), of his paper, Are Libraries Sustainable In World Of Free, Networked, Digital Information? gives us the straight goods about the future of libraries and a formula (yes, a mathematical formula!) to help us find our way into our future as viable libraries.

Are Libraries Sustainable In World Of Free, Networked, Digital Information? and available open access here  talks "...about the sustainability of libraries in a world where information is increasingly digital, networked, and free, based on a speech he gave at the 22nd Bobcatsss conference in Barcelona, January 21-24 2014."

He proposes that "the same stages and library events have taken place in all countries and in all library types, but not at the same time. Therefore, the different phases that libraries passed through to become automated are similar in each country, but they occurred in different years (Anglada , 2006)." And "a division of the recent history of libraries  (can be organised) into three major phases over the past 50 years."

Mechanization, a period characterized by the construction of new buildings and mechanization of processes; Automation, in which networks of libraries were created, OPAC was introduced and union catalogues were created; and Digitization, in which electronic journals and books appeared and documents stored in libraries have been digitized (Buckland, 1992)

Here is a portion of his discourse on the third phase:

"During the Digitization phase, however, despite librarians’ ability to adapt (both in terms of their own roles and how the library space is used), the speed of change has been so great that dysfunctions (defined as the difference between expectations and realities) have continued to increase. For example, duplication in catalogs as a result of one book being catalogued more than once; the ‘Googlization’ of information, while library catalogues – once so innovative – have failed to keep up with; and the failure of libraries to sufficiently adapt their services to meet users’ changing expectations. As a result, applying the formula to the Digitized library shows a clear downward trend in terms of its sustainability."

It continues:

"Basically, libraries are suffering from the fact that the public perception of them remains attached to the printed book, which – with the advent of the Internet and digitization of information – is no longer valued as much as it was. Among other things, this has led to the steady decline in library budgets – both in real terms and as a proportion of the overall university budget. Some classic library services are also experiencing significant declines – loan transactions, reference inquiries, and displacement of the starting point for literature searches from the library catalogue to and A&I service or the internet, for example."

and concludes:

"We need to establish a new stereotype of ‘library’ in people’s minds, one that is not based on physical elements – buildings and books – but on the role of providing support and assistance in the difficult process of using information and transforming it into knowledge.

The creation of this new perception must be performed by the current generation of young librarians – “those who are inheriting renovated libraries but also a mental image that is associated with becoming less powerful for society. This is the challenge and responsibility for young librarians: to create a new perception of our profession.”

click to enlarge

How is your library helping users do what they need to do on line?

Here is a Pew Research Center article - 10 facts about technology use in the emerging world - that sums up 10 of the notable data points about specific countries that popped up in a recent survey.

I was particularly brought face to face with my ignorance to learn that "about eight-in-ten Americans (80%) and Russians (78%) have a working computer in their household". We are not alone in our on-line world.

If we are not aware of where we in North America fit into this complex on-line conversation between people and their interests, can we really provide the necessary tools to our users so they keep up to their world neighbours with information that can lead them into the future?

click to enlarge

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Appendix A: Statistical Portrait of Library Users

We are listening to the recorded book called The Humans by Matt Haig.

 Watching this video makes us feel good

and reminds us that we are...

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This beautifully paced TedxMildeHigh 2013 presentation by Pam Sandlian, Rangeview Library District director and the recipient of the 2010 Colorado Librarian of the Year Award presented by the Colorado Association of Libraries, is popular on YouTube, and timeless.

I want to include it in our space for the record.   

screen shot: Ms Sandlian

London, England rebrands their libraries as "the Idea Stores"

She presents her story so simply and well. Her point is clear and easy to grasp... libraries are important now, they always will be, to everyone for his or her own reasons and for democracy to flourish.

Related articles

'Anythink' library district wins highest honor for libraries

In the Country of Anythink

We aren't pleased that our warnings to our colleagues, friends and family are proving accurate.

The truth about 'free apps' for your Smart Phone has hit mainstream media and the news isn't pretty.

Information is being harvested from mobile phones... information and money, out of bank accounts, all approved automatically because users are giving permission to access bank accounts and credit cards. We'd like to say that these people are victims and unsuspecting but more accurately one would have to say that they are willingly ignorant of warnings that have been common knowledge in a large chunk of web-time.

This willingness to guard our private information on our home computers whilst completely pretending that security isn't an issue on our mobile phones is inexplicable and perhaps lays somewhere in the area of cognitive dissidence.

Whatever the reasons, we have to sit up and take note. Our information is being mixed up with that of our places of business, compromising our and our employers' privacy, this information is a commodity. It is used legally (because we give them permission) by the app developers and of course, illegally by those people who will always be with us, stealing whatever and whenever, to make money at all costs.

This article - "As Facebook changes Messenger, 'risky' app behavior on the rise. A new report out says that the risks associated with mobile apps is continuing to rise, particularly for free apps on the iOS and Android platforms." by Jacob Axelrod, Staff Writer, The Christian Science Monitor, August 11, 2014, succinctly describes further the ways people are finally waking up to this theft of and permission to use, our private data.

We are particularly interested in the reports that parents are finally paying attention to privacy now that charges are arriving on their credit card bills from 'purchases' made by their children when they downloaded apps. If only we could understand more about about privacy because it IS an issue and not just because it hits us in the bank account.

Here's one of the links in the CSM article that is worth a look if you haven't the time to read the whole article now.

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Free Android app identifies and uninstalls spyware

Every library is facing this issue. Some realise it sooner than others but all libraries are making changes to their 'business model' - yes, it is a business model - the way you do business.

Take heart, everything changes and not all chages are bad for libraries or the pursuit of knowledge. What goes around comes around in unexpected ways. Librarians are masters of going with the flow - of life, of information, of democracy and freedom.

The Skokie Chamber of Commerce meets in a section of the public library where the reference collection was once kept.(Photo: Anne Ryan, USA TODAY)

This piece from USA Today is just one of the hundreds of articles on this subject making the  rounds today on Twitter and Blogs across the world. You may want to check it out.

We are in Washington preparing for National Library Lobby Day #NLLD14 .

Most instructive regarding teens issues is this link I saw on Twitter posted by @AutoGraphicsInc

I think it is an info-graphic every librarian and person in your community should see.

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YALSA unveils the 2014 Great Graphic Novels for Teens